The lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, will hold on Friday initial hearings on a bill proposing a unified digital blacklist of all websites containing pornography, drug ads and promoting suicide or extremist ideas.

The controversial bill[2], supported by all four party factions in the State Duma, has been widely criticized by civil rights activists and internet providers as an attempt to introduce censorship of the Russian segment of the internet (RuNet).

The idea of the blacklist originated last year from Russia’s League of Internet Security after the internet watchdog said it had broken up an international ring of 130 alleged pedophiles circulating material via the internet.

According to the draft document, submitted to the State Duma on June 7, the unified roster of banned websites will be run by a federal agency to be appointed by the government.